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Kate Oates
Kate Oates is a television producer, who took over the helm of the producer of Coronation Street in 2016. She was the successor to Stuart Blackburn, who she had also replaced when taking over Emmerdale in 2013 as producer. Her first credit as producer was on the 25th July 2016. Her exact plans were unknown when she took over, although it was said a stunt is planned for later in the year, and that she would bring back old characters. Some reports claimed she currently had no plans to axe any current characters at this moment in time. On the 22nd July plans were unveiled on what she would be doing as producer. This included Maria Connor's affair with Aidan Connor, and the expansion of the Barlow family with the returns of Peter Barlow, Adam Barlow and Daniel Osbourne. A big stunt was also planned, with reports claiming a 'legend' character will die. Storylines that she did introduce was the build up of the new members of the Connor family as characters as well as making Pat Phelan a regular character. She bought back Rob Donovan when he escaped from prison, and even hinted that it was a mistake that previous storylines had made him a killer. She also introduced new characters such as Colin Callen and Will Chatterton. She also introduced a storyline where evil Pat Phelan kidnaps his rival Andy Carver. Reception Kate Oates has received divided opinion on her time as producer. Although a lot of fans see her as an improvement over her predecessor Stuart Blackburn and she has received praise for some storylines, some find her overuse of stunts and issue led stories overdone, or the fact she has a tenancy to drag plots out with little good resolution. Kate has recieved a lot of criticism for the absurd and far fetched storylines surrounding villainous builder Phelan and his scheming, such as the fact he commits serious crimes and gets away with it. Examples being, Phelan got Andy to kill Vinny then turned the gun on Andy, and has conned people out of thousands of pounds. Also the fact that despite being a 50 something man, Phelan seems to win every physical scrap against his enemies, many of them being much younger. Kate has also recieved criticism for the increased amount of kidnapping storylines in the show. One example is Peter Barlow kidnapping Billy after knowing about his part in Peter's twin sister Susan Barlow's death. Then Billy falling off a cliff, falling at least 50 metres and surviving, a throwback to the famous 2011 scene where John Stape jumped off a towerblock and walked away. She has also been slated for giving characters like Michelle Connor and Robert Preston a lot of screen time. In 2018, she began getting criticism for the show being too dark and relying on constant miserable issue led storylines. This caused Oates to defend her decisions, and claimed she would balance it out with more comedy. Kate Oates quit the role of producer in April 2018, and is set to leave in June, with Iain MacLeod set to take the helm. Category:Producers